Brute Squad Guide
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Revision as of 20:33, 25 February 2008
NEWBIE BRUTE SQUAD ADVICE & SPOILERS
Some tips for newbies, by a (essentially) newbie brute.
The advantage of the brute squad is that your entire guild experience is based around incredibly straightforward concepts. Here's a list of them for your consideration.
Dismember: This is more or less the center of your world as a brute - being able to rip limbs off enemies and staying in the fight while you do so.
ADVANTAGES - Obviously, ripping off the right limbs can make many creatures utterly incapable of attacking you. But that's not all: A removed limb could also lead to armor and equipment being torn away with it. Ever rip off the wing of a flying target in mid air? How about ripping the limb off someone wearing full body armor? Or yanking off the ring-hand of a Green Lantern or Ringwraith? And while specifically targetting a limb is rarely a completely reliable option, the fact that this move does not 'miss' makes it all the more dangerous. Finally, a target that is bleeding can be dismembered to perform a killing blow, and restore some of the brute's reserves in the process. The Brute Squad motto could well be: Easy to predict, hard to stop.
CONCERNS - Dismembering costs endurance to perform - and the stronger the target's limbs, the more endurance it costs to dismember. Against hardier targets, this means you can expect to run out of endurance (Against some ogres, I cannot completely dismember them even with 2000+ endurance and well over 200+ str) quickly. Think about beer will restore a nice chunk of endurance along with your health, but the delay can be a problem. Also, the lower your endurance, the lower your combat speed - so a brute is in the position of both wanting to spend endurance to dismember, and keep endurance to optimize their round-to-round fighting. Finally, dismember requires at least two working hands in order to use. This means that losing a hand can be downright fatal to a brute.
Finally: Remember that many creatures can still be a threat to you, even with every limb removed - breath weapons, spells, and so on can do some incredible damage all on their own. And really, once the limbs are removed, a brute's combat options are limited. All you can do is hope the damage will stack up from round to round, or hope the headbutts and elbow-drops will stun and harm enough to seal the deal.
Pump Up: Your only buff skill. And what a skill! This will boost your strength and constitution (and therefore your hit points and endurance). Its effects are enhanced by alcohol - and whenever you're attacking, you should be as drunk as possible anyway. As straightforward as it is, this ability has no real concerns to consider other than general needs to raise skills and stay plastered.
Headbutt: Once upon the time, a skill even more effective than the mighty dismember, changes have made this ability decidedly 'okay'. It can hit multiple body parts in a single strike, and the attack itself can hit hard.
Think about beer: The guild help files don't make this clear enough, so it's worth stating here: This command will provide a very nice body-wide heal, add a slight amount of inebriation, and restore a large chunk of endurance to the brute - but only if its use results in the brute saying "Mmm... beer." There's a delay between use, and its successful use seems linked to spirit in a way that is unclear. I've been reduced to 1 spirit through vlekthid attacks, and think about beer will still work. But I've also had 10 out of 140 spirit available, and then it does not - so it seems to be proportional more than anything. A staple ability right alongside dismember. Note that thinking about beer will not restore limbs.
Unarmed: Brutes gain particular advantages to unarmed combat, and frankly I (as a yeti) have gotten to level 35 with minimal hassle using my bare hands/claws. (I've also been running around naked most of that time, though as everyone will tell you, a parageos works wonders for brute success.) But there's one particular point to keep in mind: With some racial exceptions, you will only do out and out physical damage using your bare hands. While it goes without saying that certain creatures are weak to particular damage, ghosts in particular will not only take no damage from basic physical attacks - they also cannot have their limbs removed. I strongly advise looking around for weapons that do alternate damage types for use when fighting such targets.
Joinable Associations: LDD, Hank's Garbage Dwarves.. this section needs help.
